Since the advent of the “lowest common denominator” standard of HTML web pages, the popularity of the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web, has exploded; and web content has continued to proliferate exponentially on a worldwide basis. Over the past five years, web content has evolved from mere hyperlinked text-based web pages to a more interactive and visually appealing experience integrating server-based database and search engine technologies with client-side browser and plug-in support for graphics, animation, video, and interactive two-dimensional/three-dimensional objects.
In addition to being a great resource for the distribution of information by individuals and a wide variety of companies, the Web also has become a commercial mecca, replete with online stores, auction sites and various related sites offering product information, targeted advertising, comparison shopping and a host of other commercial services.
The Web has provided the necessary distributed infrastructure to enable the formation of a wide variety of online “communities.” Not only can individuals and companies establish web sites to distribute information about themselves and offer their products and services to the puc, but web sites also can create online communities (e.g., for news, chat, gaming, shopping, etc.) with a focus beyond the individual or company establishing the site.
A common characteristic of a great many of these sites is the automation (at least in part) of what otherwise would have been a manual process. For example, online auction sites enable sellers to post their products, and potential buyers to bid on such products, without the intervention of a human auctioneer. Similarly, online shopping sites enable merchants to post their products and/or services, and consumers to browse for, purchase, and arrange for shipment of such products and/or services, without any human intervention by salespersons or other typical store personnel.
Certain consumer-merchant interactions, however, are not so easily automated. For example, complex transactions (e.g., purchasing a home mortgage) and customer support applications (e.g., handling pre-sale inquiries and post-sale troubleshooting problems) present unique challenges that cannot be met by typical online store and database technology. The lack of “human hand-holding” makes one-click shopping features and troubleshooting databases seem particularly unsatisfying in this context in which consumers require greater pre-sale and post-sale support, and “one size doesn't fit all.”
In an effort to provide greater personalization, various web sites have for years provided free-form personalized content to registered users. For example, portal sites such as www.excite.com allow users to customize web pages with desired news and sports categories, stock quotes, local weather, restaurant and movie listings, and various other personal selections. Such sites provide users with a personalized, yet automated, experience. Yet, although many of these sites offer online shopping services and access to various specialized databases, they do not apply a personalized approach to the more difficult problem of guiding users through complex consumer-merchant interactions.
It is for this reason that many companies are looking for new approaches to “customer care” or “online customer relationship management.” These companies have recognized that it is not sufficient merely to offer personalized portions of web pages to registered users, and to generate HTML web pages dynamically such that different users see different web pages (perhaps with some content in common).
Such companies have gone further by focusing on customer care specifically, and providing application/web site authors with the ability to create rules that determine which content to render to particular users. For example, a recent product, the Dynamo personalization system from Art Technology Group of Cambridge, Mass. (www.atg.com), includes rule-based personalization software that customizes content based on user profile information and observed behavior. It enables authors to “tag” or categorize content and render such content to users that have been similarly categorized.
Products from Brightware, Inc. of Novato, Calif. (www.brightware.com), Broadvision, Inc. of Redwood City, Calif. (www.broadvision.com), and Vignette Corp. of Austin, Tex. (www.vignette.com) offer similar capabilities. Moreover, various patents have been granted on dynamic mechanisms for tracking user activity and customizing the presentation of content to users based upon such prior activities. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,848,396, 5,717,923, and 5,710,887.
Yet, human customer service personnel would take into account not only profile information and the prior behavior of past, current and prospective customers, but also their own experience in dealing with similarly situated customers and their own goals of providing targeted information and “pushing” certain products and services to such customers, all while recognizing the customer's current place in the overall (e.g., pre-sale through post-sale) process.
What is needed is a highly intelligent system that enables application/web site authors to formulate rules that not only determine dynamically which content is rendered to which users, but which further the author's goals by adapting the selection of content to each user's unique scenario, thereby simulating the dialogue between customers and human salesmen and customer service personnel, but in the context of an automated interactive system.